Prologue
Taken

My fingers mindlessly tapped against the wooden desk. I waited for my father to come in and begin his lesson for the day. I was just so tired, though. He had woken me up so early today, it was obnoxious. I yawned and finally set my head down, and closed my eyes.

"Raise your head, and open your eyes. I don't want you to fall asleep," my father commanded. I nodded, but didn't move right away. With a sigh, I slowly pulled myself up into a sitting position in my chair.

"Yes, father," I replied in a monotone.

He smirked as he circled me from behind.

"Good girl, now guess what today's lesson is!" he piped. I just groaned and shrugged.

"Mathematics," I droned, looking up at him with bored eyes.

"Nope! Even better," he said, taking a seat in front of me on his stool.

I just groaned again and whispered bitterly, "How troublesome, we don't get to do anything fun."

My father chuckled as he pulled out a book. "Oh, this will be tons of fun, just you wait."

"I won't wait, I'll sleep. Wake me when you're ready," I said dismissively.

He hummed and then slapped his hand on my desk. "I'm done."

I grumbled before bringing my head up. "Fine. Let's get this over with."

His eyes narrowed into a glare. "I won't do anything with you with that kind of attitude."

"Than can I sleep off the pain your words give me?" I retorted duly, giving him a 'that's-a-good-idea' look.

He shook his head cheerfully with a smile. "No. I'll just make you do dishes."

A smile suddenly erupted on my face. "So what are we doing today, daddy?"

He chuckled again and patted my head. "That's good enough, sweetie. And, what we're going to do today, is fun." He paused and then rushed out, "But it's also a surprise."

"Oh my Kami! I hate you," I snapped. I hated surprises.

He just shrugged, his happiness never dimming down. "I know you still love me." He chuckled and then stood up, circling me again. "I just want you to try something."

"What?" I bit back.

"Copy me," he ordered. Slowly, he started doing weird things with his hands. With a confused look, I lazily copied him. "Put more effort into it," my dad snapped, glaring at me. "It won't work if you don't."

"What are you doing?" I asked in a bored tone. He frowned at me. Then without warning he made a single hand gesture and his shadow broke into five unidentifiable shapes. They all went for my limbs, and wrapped itself around one. I felt my eyes widen. "What's going on here?!"

Dad shrugged and then with the twitch of his finger, I was in the air. I felt myself jerk around ridiculously in fear.

"D-dad set me down!" I demanded, flailing around. Well, at least trying to. They were coming off of his shadow, and were real, and touching me. My eyes felt like they were going to pop out of my head. "D-dad!" I hissed. I looked around and then screamed for my mother.

She called back, "Honey, what's going on?" She came into the room cautiously, lingering at the door. "Hey, set her down. Don't be too rough with our little girl, sweetie."

I stared at her with shock, "Mom! Help me!"

She shrugged and continued to lean against the wall. "Why? You seem to be doing just fine. Try to break out of it, sweetheart… And stop looking so panicked," she said casually.

I frowned and looked to my dad. "Let me go. What the heck are you even doing?!"

"A simple jutsu," he replied calmly, staring at me with steady eyes. What was I, a test subject? I stopped trying to get out of the jutsu, and stayed still.

I looked at him with amazement, my shock fading away. "This is a jutsu...? What kind?"

My dad shrugged and then had his shadows release me. I landed roughly on the top of the desk. I made a grunt of protest, and glared at him while he continued, "It's more of a bloodline limit. I have to say, I'm very curious to see which one you inherited." He looked to my mother. "Do you think it's possible she got both?"

Mother shook her head, and then glanced at me. "I don't want to talk about it right now." My father only nodded slowly. His face was serious, and this made me shift awkwardly. They both seemed out of character.

I sighed, looking between the two, pushing my curiosity away. They would tell me if it was truly important. I nodded to that, but then groaned.

One Year Later

"Mom, what the hell do you think you're doing?" I asked, climbing into the kitchen to see my mom take a knife and hold it like a kunai. She quickly stopped what she was doing, and turned, holding the knife behind her.

"Nothing!" she spat, glaring at me. I hummed and jumped down into the kitchen. I screamed when she whipped the kunai from behind her and threw it at me.

"What the hell?!" I screamed, dodging. She then charged at me. "Mom!" I yelled, backing away quickly, grabbing the closest thing to me. I dove my hand to the table and picked up something silver. "A spoon?" I spat, glaring at it.

"Eyes up, dear," my mother said seconds before attacking me. I gasped and raised the spoon, blocking her brutal attacks.

"What is the meaning of this?" I growled, throwing some kicks at her, being careful not to destroy furniture. "This is too much work dammit. So troublesome."

"Watch your mouth," my mother hissed. I smirked and looked down at her.

"Make me, hag," I taunted. She scowled and then was suddenly in front of me, her hands on my throat.

"I'm not a hag. For your information, I'm only twenty-five. Hah," she said. Another growl erupted from her throat and she wheeled back to slap me.

"Shit!" I cursed, hitting her arm away and dropping to the floor, kicking her legs out from under her. She fell to the ground and grabbed my hair.

"Oh no. Not so easy, cupcake," she hissed, yanking me to her. I yelped, tears forming in my eyes. My hair was my weakness. Dammit!

I lunged backward, flipping to where I landed on my feet, ignoring the pain zapping through my head. And to my horror, my mother hadn't even activated her Sharingan. "God dammit, mom. Attack me for real, but let's take this outside," I demanded. She let go of my hair and stood.

"Let's," she agreed. She made a hand-sign and then disappeared. I growled and did the same.

We were outside, in our backyard. Dead, golden grass surrounded us for about a half a mile before it cut off to forest. The forest caged us, and we silently looked around, deeming this dead meadow our battle spot.

"Bring it on, hag," I challenged, shaking my body, and stretching. My mother snickered, and got ready.

"Bring it, weakling," she sneered.

I growled, but settled for glaring at her. I pulled a hair tie from my wrist and threw my hair back in a tight bun. I kept my eyes on my mother, and breathed deeply. I didn't know what was up with her, but I had a bad feeling this was my birthday surprise. Damn.

"C'mon, Aiyana," my mother mewed. "I won't wait all day!"

I scowled and spat at the ground. Taking a ready position. "Then let's do this, grandma!"

With another growl, my mother launched herself at me; a kunai out and ready to stab me with. Only difference is that, this time, I was ready for her to attack me. I quickly made a shadow clone and we both waited. I just didn't feel like moving much.

We both quickly engaged in a fight, and not much to my surprise, my mother quickly defeated my shadow clone. I cursed as she launched herself at me, and pinned me to the ground, kunai to my neck.

"Dammit!" I hissed, clawing at her arm. She gave me a look, and I glared back at her. Luckily for me, when she tried to pull back, she noticed she was trapped in my shadow possession.

"Hm, so your father taught you this finally?" she questioned. I smirked and nodded.

"Yes, it's pretty sweet, but too limited. Kind of sucks," I admitted with a shrug, the smirk still on my face. My mother gave me a cynical look, and I just chuckled. "So, I made some modifications," I informed, and then my mother noticed how the shadow broke into what looked like thousands of thin strings. "I first looked into the puppet no jutsu I had read about. It was quite handy because now you're under my control." My mother slowly stood up, but not willingly. "Then I just added some more chakra to the jutsu, and now, I have my own, strong jutsu. The only bad thing is that it drains my chakra faster than

I would like it to. I'll have to work on control."

She gave me a bemused look and said, "I fear you. That's not a good thing... How long have you been working on this...jutsu?"

My happy mood faltered and I looked at my mother with a steady gaze, questioning mentally why she would look so displeased. Why isn't she happy with my jutsu? "I've been working on this for a couple of months with dad. Why?"

My mother nodded slowly before saying, "You're a nine-year-old child who could easily take down a twenty-five-year-old Uchiha. Maybe I need to start being harder on you... Or training more with you." She chuckled bitterly.

I frowned and undid the modifications. I crossed my arms and smiled slightly when my mother did the same. Of course, I still had control of her body.

I could feel my chakra slowly draining from my system. This was probably not going to last much longer. "Wouldn't that mean more... work? Shouldn't we focus on something else? For example, my taijutsu needs work, and I only know three ninjutsu. Plus, what about my genjutsu? You've yet to show me anything of that sort."

My mother looked at me with a blank expression, her eyes glazing over in thought. "You won't be learning any genjutsu. I don't feel comfortable with teaching you that." Her words slowly sank into my head, and I felt something burn in my gut. She wasn't going to teach me genjutsu?! Even with her bloodline limit?!

"What?" I breathed, too angry to raise my voice. "What do you mean no genjutsu?"

My mother's eyes hardened, and pierced through mine, not liking the tone I was using. "No. Genjutsu. Not now, not ever. I don't want you to get my bloodline limit, Aiyana. You'd be too dangerous."

Feeling pressured, and frowned. My stubborn side came out, slightly angered at her distrusting tone. "And what if I already have it?" I asked her, holding a glare that made her snicker.

"Stop glaring," she laughed. I just felt an eyebrow raise, and held it until she went serious again. "You can't have it. You already have the shadow possession. It's not possible."

"It is too," I retorted, giving her an icy look. "Have you ever looked into it? I have your blood as well as my father's blood running through me. It's perfectly possible. Just think about it."

My mother glared at me. "Why the hell do you want it so badly?!"

"Because it's powerful! I want power!" I yelled at her, scowling. "Is that not simple to see? I want to be more powerful than you or father! It would mean that I finally could continue with my plans."

"What exactly would a nine-year-old do with power?" my mother questioned dryly. I released her from the jutsu before my chakra emptied, almost falling to my knees from the lack of energy. Just barely, I managed to stay upright. "And what kind of plans do you have, my naive child?"

I scowled at what she called me, and then brushed it off mentally, not wanting to anger her even more. "I wanna rule the world," I informed through gritted teeth.

As soon as that came out of my mouth, my mother let out a big laugh. I felt my eyebrows scrunch in hurt confusion. Why wouldn't my mother take me seriously? My anger melted into hurt as I watched her laugh at me and my dream. I frowned deeply when tears formed in my eyes. I didn't let them fall though.

"Stop laughing! It's not funny! I'll do it, too!" I screamed at her, going to run to home when everything seemed to turn into slow motion. Someone grabbed my wrist and pulled me back into their chest. Considering the area was flat, it was either a male or a very flat chested female. I went with the idea it was a male.

Something cool and metallic was put to my throat. Suddenly it all clicked at once. My mother was on the ground, blood oozing from the wound on her chest, right where her heart should be. There was a man holding me, a kunai to my neck. My father was shouting something, charging forward, only to stop and jump away as a couple of shuriken sliced the air and landed where my father had been standing. He quickly engaged in battle with a man who had spiky blonde hair.

I wanted to scream, but my voice was caught in my throat, and instead what came out was a strained sob. My eyes sunk to my mother and I let out another cry.

My sorrow quickly turned to anger as I realized something. They had killed my mother. My teary eyes narrowed in horror. They were going to kill me too. My body shook slightly, and I felt my knees go weak. I already knew I was in no position to even try to fight for my life. Another sob escaped my throat, and the person now had the kunai to my throat and let go of my wrist and wrapped an arm around my stomach so I didn't fall. I felt myself slump against him, as if I was giving up. Something inside of me assured that this was far from over.

I heard my father yell something as he tried to run to me, but again, was engaged in battle with the blonde haired ninja. Even though my father stood before me, alive, a small sense of dread streamed through me. He wasn't going to make it.

We were both already at an uneven advantage. I hated it with every fiber of my being. I felt played, and taken advantage of. But what really got to me is how when my father's eyes widened, as he suddenly seemed to remember something, and a tanto was shoved into his chest. I screamed again, rage burning in my gut. It was quickly washed away again by the force of pain I felt from seeing my parents both die in front of me.

"Daddy!" I wailed, trashing a bit. An urge to fight back surged through my veins, but it was cut short when person holding me spoke up.

"Stop thrashing, or I'll cut you," the man hissed, and I suddenly realized I wasn't being held by a man, but by a boy.

This seemed to make my misery intensify. Another child having to witness the death of my parents made something else seem to snap inside of me, but with all of the negative emotions I wasn't able to feel or express, let alone identify what it was.

The boy's grip on my stomach tightened as the blonde headed man slowly walked away from my father's body. Regret shined deep in the blonde's blue eyes, but he quickly wiped it away, and looked at me. He scanned me from head to toe, and then met my eyes. His eyes on me fueled something inside of me. I couldn't understand what it was, but it seemed to be ice compared to the burning emotions that fired through my veins. I quickly dropped my gaze to the ground only to see my mother's lifeless body. I couldn't help the sobs that rasped from my throat.

"What do we do with her, sensei?" the boy asked over my soft weeping.

The man looked down at me, and then at the boy holding me. They met eyes and for a moment, nothing seemed to happen. The kunai was taken from my neck, just as the boy let go of my stomach. Just as I was about to bolt off, something cold hit the back of my neck, knocking me to my knees. My vision started to fade, and just before I could fall to the ground the boy who had kept the kunai to my neck, reached out and wrapped an arm around my torso.